Fanfiction helper
by Kyuubi no Deshi
Summary: It's not a fanfiction. It's a short helper that I hope will help people to write better fanfictions in better ways.
1. Chapter 1

HOW TO WRITE A FANFIC

 **People! This will NOT be a fanfic but more like a guide/manual to help poor writers to write better their fanfictions.**

 **I'm not saying I'm the best! Far from it, but I try my best to write correctly so, when I read my own fic I don't think: _"Man! Did I really wrote such a crappy, shitty fanfic?!"_**

Grammar

1- **Grammar and words**!

First thing first.

How many time I have read: " **You was my best friend**!" Seriously?! _You was_?! Where those people learned English? A cereal box?!

Before you write in any language, make sure you know how to write correctly! I'm French, and I waited years before starting to write in English! To be sure that my language skill was good enough so people wouldn't think: " _Is this guy even human?!_ " I admit, even now, I make mistakes but I try to write my fanfiction correctly.

So, check your grammar and be sure that you write it nice and clean.

Also, I often saw " **here** " that should have been " **her** " or " **were** " instead of " **where** ". I understand, it can happen to anyone. But it's not normal to find it 5 times or more in a single chapter! And this leads me to the second part…

2- **Rereading!**

It's something you MUST NOT ignore when you write! I repeat: DO NOT IGNORE! Once you're done writing your chapter/fanfiction, read it again and check for any error. Everybody do error, we're human, we are allowed to make errors but we must try and do better and correct those!

Check it once on whatever program you use to write (I use Microsoft Word), then check it again once you put it on the website! You never know if it was copied right or not.  
Moreover, if you do use Microsoft Words, then you should be notified if you do an error or if you wrote something wrong... It always help so don't ignore or delete those little red and green lines.

3- **Punctuation…**

As many of you know, there are several things you put in a fanfic, things known as " _punctuation_ ". It includes: [. , … ; - " " ' ! ? / : * ] And maybe more but my keyboard doesn't have them, but those are the main ones, those you use every day.

It's important to know where you put those in your sentences.

 **Ex 1** : _He was, going to lead them to, victory like he promised._ **X  
Ex 2**: _He was going to lead them to victory, like he promised._ **O  
Ex 3**: _He was going to lead them to victory like he promised._ **O**

Now, as you can see, there are two right sentences ( **O** ) and one wrong ( **X** ).  
The **Ex 1** , if you can't understand why it's wrong, go back to school!  
For the two correct ones, the coma only change little. In **Ex 2** , the coma give the impression that A speak about B leading them to victory; in **Ex 3** , it sounds more like B is talking about himself.

Now, the use of "…" to start and end a sentence: I often saw fanfictions where it was either misplaced, or even completely absent.  
It is true that it's not the only way to start a sentence, some people use [-] or [ —] to start one. But if you don't show the start and the end of the sentence, people can get confused or annoyed (like me).

 **Ex 1:** "I really wanted to buy that bag. said the young girl. **X  
Ex 2: **"I really wanted to buy that bag." said the young girl. **O  
Ex 3: **— I really wanted to buy that bag, said the young girl. **O**

Now, like you can guess, using [—] can be a little tricky but you can clearly see how annoying it is to forget ["…"] in **Ex 1**. I know it looks like it's nothing but it's annoying if you keep forgetting to separate dialog and text.

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 **Well, this was just the first part. I'll post the other later. I hope I don't sound arrogant and that this can help people. And, yes, it's short. It's a guide, not a fanfiction. Deal with it!  
**


	2. Chapter 2

**Well, her's the second chapter of this helper... I hope it will help people in their writing.**

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Basics knowledge

4- **Other languages (autres langues, altre lingue)**

Now, I've read more Harry Potter fanfictions than I can tell. In many of them the authors probably used Google to translate what they wrote in English to French, when Fleur Delacour speaks. Now, if you don't know the language or anyone who speaks the language you want to use, it's ok to use that program but Google isn't perfect!  
Personally, as a French person, I've see sentences' constructions that hurt my eyes when I read them! I can gladly help you if you want for any French or even Italian sentences or words you may need.

Japanese and such languages, even sometime Russian, are different matters. I study Japanese and I know it's a bit tricky so using Google is a must. However, you can still watch several anime in original language with the subtitles; it helps a lot, even if to recognize some words or whole sentence you can use. Using Google, you can compare what you heard and what you read.  
Tho, it's easier to put a foreign language between two particular symbols ($...$ or §…§, there a lot of symbols available on Word) or in _italic_ or **bold**... 

5- **Length and form (-Z-X-Y-B-J-)**

The length of your chapters is something important. Everyone likes to write or read different sized kind of chapter. Some like them very long, some very short, some likes it in between. But you shouldn't overdo it.  
I've seen chapters so long I got bored and stopped reading, and I don't bored by fanfictions easily; others were so short (like, 5 lines!) that I didn't even bother to start reading!

Another thing important when you write is to not put together everything but make sure dialog and text are separated.  
Several, hard to understand fanfictions are like this:

 _He went down and asked "Who's there?" before he suddenly felt a dark voice answering "It's me" "Me who?" he asked back "ME!" it suddenly screamed before jumping on the guy. "Damnit!" he yelled before rolling down and throwing his aggressor over his head. "Hahahaha! Weren't expecting me, right dude?!" the unknown man asked with a sadist smirk. "You?!" "Me." "What are you doing here? I thought you were dead!" he asked, his eyes still widened from the surprise.  
_  
Now, like this it doesn't look so bad, but wait until it becomes a full page and you will have trouble reading it, I promise. So, try to put some order in your fic:

 _He went down and asked "Who's there?"  
Before he suddenly felt a dark voice answering, "It's me"  
"Me who?" he asked back.  
"ME!" it suddenly screamed before jumping on the guy._  
 _"Damnit!" he yelled before rolling down and throwing his aggressor over his head.  
"Hahahaha! Weren't expecting me, right dude?!" the unknown man asked with a sadist smirk.  
"You?!"  
"Me."  
"What are you doing here? I thought you were dead!" he asked, his eyes still widened from the surprise._

Better like this, right?

Another thing you want to be careful with is the length of your paragraphs. This may vary from person to person by I find long paragraphs annoying. Of course, you need to right the story but you need also dialog in that story! My advice is to, once you're done with your chapter, read it again or make it read by a friend to see if it's "easy" to read… 

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**As said here, I'll be happy to help with any French or Italian wording you need if you want me to. I can even help with Japanese, since I study it, so I can give you advices.**


End file.
